Holmes' (and Mycroft's) Parents

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Would anyone be interested in sharing their speculation on Holmes' parents, and early life?

Googling got me an interesting article - http://bakerstreet.wikia.com/wiki/Holmesian_Speculation , but there's lots and lots of room left for more. Anything about whether his father worked, or was Army?

I admit I always had an idea that Holmes' early boyhood was in Sussex, and that's why he retired there, but that's more guess than deduction.

Comments

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to give this a bit of thought, but I just wanted to say immediately how much I like the idea that Holmes started off in Sussex and that's why he wanted to retire there. It feels truthful and very possible.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Thank you for considering the question!

[mundungus42.livejournal.com]

Well, one thing that's absolutely certain (well, to me) is that Sherlock and Mycroft started playing musical instruments at an early age, had a private music tutor, and heard lots of music, so their parents clearly had enough money to afford a tutor and saw music as an essential part of education. People that aren't raised with music generally don't play instruments as an emotional release or go hear live performances to hear them, rather than to be seen.

I like the idea that Holmes was raised in Sussex- to have grown up in a rural area would have made going to hear concerts or operas a special and exciting event. But I definitely see the Holmes patriarch as a country squire with little patience for the rules of high society and who managed a small estate rather than working, for all that it's a terribly standard interpretation.

I could see an argument that Sherlock's father was in the military, given Sherlock and Mycroft's familiarity with how soldiers dress and behave and the way that their service marks them. But I could equally see them learning that from, say, a regiment being billeted nearby, a'la Pride and Prejudice.

But that's just my kneejerk response that's probably not worth much. Definitely interesting questions to ponder!

I've often wondered if Sherlock's disdain for women had anything to do with his upbringing (was his mother dead? were the women he knew awful?).

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

That's great about music. I'm convinced. And that Holmes (and Mycroft) acquired their impatience with social conventions from a country squire - also most persuasive!

I do wonder if Mrs Holmes was rather a weak sister, who let her son(s) down at least once. Watson describes a manner with them which could have been learned to respond to a dependent and nervy mother. She might have been genuinely ailing, mind you.

Your kneejerk response is definitely worth much. Thank you so much!

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

A reading of the Copper Beeches may prove informative for two reasons:

1) On the topic of quaint country homesteads:

"Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation, and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there."

"Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?"

"They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."

2) On strange arrangements of Violet Hunter's employment, and the nature of her employer.

"I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to see a sister of mine apply for."

My head-canon is not set in this area but it is not hard to speculate that Holmes did grow up in a pastoral setting, and that he knew about (witnessed? was victim of?) a horror that went unpunished. And perhaps there was a sister.

Why did Holmes say 'sister'? This is an early case for Holmes and that would place his age as mid to late twenties. Violet Hunter was close enough in age with Holmes that she could have been his sister. An older man would say 'daughter' not 'sister'. Perhaps it was just an expression of the time. How literally do we dare take ACD?

Why did Holmes say 'sister', and not "a friend" or "anyone I knew"? One can only speculate!

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for this fine reply. I agree that Copper Beeches quotation is considerable, and the way he though 'sister' for Miss Viloet Hunter.

*starts sister speculating*

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I've had a think ^^

I'm loath to blame Holmes' mother for his distrust of woman. Holmes is a man who probably didn't have sisters (I have seen the argument below but I do believe the Holmes brothers were the only children in the family) and who from an early age, would have been away from home, being educated in an all male environment - including university. And when he was an adult, for whatever reason(s) he didn't want to be romantically or emotionally involved with a woman, so he wouldn't have chosen to have much contact with women even then. How could he learn to trust women when he didn't mix with them?

I wonder if it's the other way round: it's not a case of a woman letting Holmes down, rather it's a case of men who Holmes looked up to, drumming it into him that women can't be trusted. (That group not necessarily including his father.)

I am completely persuaded by mundungus42's theory about the Holmes brothers being brought up around music (their mother being a talented musician too perhaps..?), and incline very positively towards capt_facepalm's evidence for the theory that Holmes grew up in the countryside.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It would be very appropriate to the mid-nineteenth century, being so segregated from female peers. Even the women servants could have been older.

Most men raised so are fairly awkward in their interactions with women, but Holmes might have learned his successful way of handling distrait women later than childhood.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Re distrait women: I know in REDC Holmes calms Mrs. Warren down. But Watson says: He had an almost hypnotic power of soothing when he wished. I don't think there's anything to say that he only uses this effect on women. And in NORW, we have Holmes having to calm a man, McFarlane, down (admittedly with a cigarette). I think Holmes has taught himself how to deal with people in general - for his work and because he's a gentleman.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Thank you for pointing that out. I'm sure you're right, and I don't know where I'd got the idea it wasn't unisex.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Well, you never know, I might be wrong - there might be references elsewhere to Holmes having special powers that calm down nervous women ^^ The bit in REDC is just something that came to mind.